Non refundable hotel booking

hcb42

i have worked in hotels for years, for several national and international chains - never heard of a hotel charging an admin fee under these circumstances

There is almost always a flexible rate and a cheaper advance purchase rate - - unless the rate was a super cheap prepayable offer, it's always worth considering whether the flexible rate is worth the extra cost

daytona0

JReacher1 wrote: »

None of those are really serious reasons why you need to charge an admin charge to refund a booking.


I agree that a none refundable room should not be refunded due to the terms of the booking. I do not disagree with anything there you have posted.

My point is that if they did decide to refund there are no real costs to the business to justify an admin fee being charged. There are costs they've lost due to missed sales etc but I wouldn't say they were an admin cost.

Fair enough. As it happens I've just started an accountancy course and, whilst I am in no way an expert on the subject, my basic understanding is that a cancellation creates more work and costs more money because you have to hire someone (or allocate resources) to record the data multiple times AND ensure that third parties like HMRC are notified (for tax purposes).

If OP doesn't cancel then no extra information needs to be recorded/passed to HMRC.

Not sure how automated companies are these days, but I'd wager that *some* admin costs are incurred somewhere along the chain. I may be completely wrong, though, so who knows!

takman

JReacher1 wrote: »

None of those are really serious reasons why you need to charge an admin charge to refund a booking.

I agree that a none refundable room should not be refunded due to the terms of the booking. I do not disagree with anything there you have posted.

My point is that if they did decide to refund there are no real costs to the business to justify an admin fee being charged. There are costs they've lost due to missed sales etc but I wouldn't say they were an admin cost.

Of course there is an Admin cost, any extra work that someone has to do has a cost associated with it simply due to the fact staff are paid by the hour.
Just because a member of staff is already hired by a business and being paid doesn't mean there is no cost to the business. The staffing levels and hours will be based on the amount of work. So more people ringing up to cancel and amend bookings means more staff/hours are required.

150940

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

How about any admin costs involved in taking the first booking then arranging for the refund to be paid out?

As already said, if they're additional costs. Or maybe you think the staff are working flat out and have no time to process the request. How many times have you walked through a hotel reception and seen the staff doing nothing?

pendragon_arther

bris wrote: »

Why, what difference does that make?

It's called being interested. It's a human thing.

shaun_from_Africa

150940 wrote: »

How many times have you walked through a hotel reception and seen the staff doing nothing?

Many times, but then again, as they are normally reception staff and not accountancy staff, what they may or may not be doing is in all likelihood, totally irrelevant to the case in hand.

150940

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Many times, but then again, as they are normally reception staff and not accountancy staff, what they may or may not be doing is in all likelihood, totally irrelevant to the case in hand.

Well same goes for accountancy staff then. They're paid 9-5 so if they we able to deal with the cancellation witin that time with no adverse effect to their working day. Where is the loss?

Poppie68

Hotel reception staff especially in large hotel chains do not make the bookings/cancellations unless the guest is a walk in. All admin including bookings/cancellations are carried out by back office staff, dealing with cancellations is going to take time and money so if it's in the T&C and perfectly legal why shouldn't someone pay for a change of mind?

[Deleted User]

Hi,

I think the clue's in the thread title, 'Non refundable hotel booking', that's the chance you take.

daytona0

150940 wrote: »

Well same goes for accountancy staff then. They're paid 9-5 so if they we able to deal with the cancellation witin that time with no adverse effect to their working day. Where is the loss?

Well the company has presumably planned their resources on the understanding that bookings are non refundable, so they haven't planned on using the accountants (or other staff) for handling cancellations.

Due to OP they are required to carry out more work above and beyond what is expected and it isn't fair for the hotel to incur those costs.

The accountants *might not* have a full workload for the day but that is what they get their base pay for! To do their core jobs. If you want a service above and beyond the core service (ie a cancellation) then you might have to pay for it.